The benefits of distributing safety, security or alarm related electrical output devices throughout a building or structure have been recognized. Such devices are often coupled to alarm systems which monitor the various regions of the respective building or structure for security, fire, gas or related dangerous ambient conditions.
In many instances buildings have walls or ceilings with surface mounted electrical or wire junction boxes. These boxes are often connected by surface mounted conduits to a central location associated with the alarm system. The conduits can carry signal/power wires between the central location and the various respective electrical output devices.
It is often desirable from an aesthetic point of view to cover the surface mounted boxes as part of installing an ambient condition detector, output device or other type of electrical unit. One such configuration which incorporates a molded plastic skirt for covering a surface mounted electrical box has been disclosed and claimed in Thorp et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,665 issued Jun. 22, 1999 and entitled “Cover for Surface Monitored Alarm Unit”. The Thorp et al. patent has been assigned to the Assignee hereof and is incorporated by reference.
In the structure of the Thorp et al. patent, electrical output units are directly coupled to wiring received from the respective surface mounted electrical box. From an installation point of view it would be desirable to be able to carry out the necessary connection to the wires from the respective electrical box without having to directly connect the respective electrical unit to those wires.
In view of the labor cost which include aligning and connecting the various elements to both electrically and mechanically attach an electrical unit to a surface mounted box it would be desirable to provide structures which make the process as efficient and cost effective as possible. Preferably such configurations could be used with ambient condition detectors, output devices of all types as well as other electrical units without limitation.